


The things one learns

by phantomas (sil)



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 03:23:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5523608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sil/pseuds/phantomas





	The things one learns

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chosenfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chosenfire/gifts).



 Max can count on the fingers of his hands all the things he has learned in the past 5 years. The first thing is that, yes, if he tries hard and holds his breath and pretends all his ghosts are not dancing around him, he does remember some things, and unbelievably, what he does remember is how much full nappies stink.

  
The second thing he has learned it's that babies are warm and even if you sort of feed them haphazardly collected semi-liquid foods that may not necessarily be the best thing for them, the baby still curls in your arm and leans its head against your heart.

  
Then there's those little fingers that stubbornly, almost blindly, always manage to reach out and grab one of his fingers, and all of a sudden all things gets skewed out of proportion, because his one finger looks gigantic gripped in those little ones, and the burden on his shoulders feels like a mountain, two mountains, three. Huge and rocky and impossible to lift. It makes his breath hitch.

  
Fourth thing is that he can't say precisely when was the last time he had a full night sleep. He could ask for help, he knows he could, but all the fussing it's just not for him. He is perfectly capable of washing what needs to be washed and feed the ever-crying little beast and if he has to sleep in fits and bits, so what, it's okay, he'll just be a touch crankier for a while and catch up on his sleep when the baby is quiet.

  
The baby is quiet. That's another thing. Why is the baby quiet? Is it okay? Is it breathing? You have to check, don't you? Stopping the car in the middle of the desert because the baby folded and wrapped up is quiet is as good a reason as any other. Perhaps the extra two blankets are too much, too warm, but you can't risk it in the desert, it's kind of chilly at night, you know.

  
The other hand, now, thing number six. When you shape your mouth in an O shape, the baby does it too. It can go on for hours, making a sound, shaping your mouth and watching as the baby mimics the motions. You have to be careful about what you say, actually, you know, those long monologues you have with yourself, ranting about the world and the gazzolene never being enough and Furiosa keeping sending people after him, just to check, why don't you come back for a while, just for a short while, we would love to see the baby, you know? We miss it.   
Of course they do. The baby grows and grows and looks like its mother more and more each passing day. And some choice words have appeared in the baby's baby talk, at the most awkward moments, and even Max have stopped in his tracks hearing the words coming out of the little mouth.

  
He'll go around, of course. He always does. They do deserve to see the baby.  
But he likes to have the baby to himself. The baby is just a little creature growing up and knows nothing of the bad of the Wasteland. Max thinks that if he keeps the baby with him, he can protect it from everything. He will.

  
At some point, Max will give the baby a name, too. When he's ready.

 


End file.
